


the baffled king composing hallelujah

by soapboxblues



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, Falling In Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-23
Updated: 2013-02-23
Packaged: 2017-12-03 09:48:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/696966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soapboxblues/pseuds/soapboxblues
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Old habits die hard, but eventually everything dies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the baffled king composing hallelujah

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Many thank you's to my beta. It took a whole day to convince her to edit a fic about Klaus. She was just as intimidated by the character as I was.

**the baffled king composing hallelujah**

_it goes like this - the fourth, the fifth_  
 _the minor fall, the major lift_  
 _the baffled king composing hallelujah_

 

"He took Caroline."

Klaus reacts how he usually would. He scoffs and rolls his eyes and curls his tongue around a heartless response that's along the lines of _and this matters why?_ He hangs up amidst the begging muddled by tears, shakes his head and pours himself a glass of scotch. He goes on with his day.

Old habits die hard, but eventually everything dies.

\---

People are forgettable. Klaus cannot remember a single name from his village when he was growing up. And it's not just mortals - humans and werewolves. Vampires who die fade as well - no matter how long they lived. Even now, Elijah will say he had four brothers instead of five or Klaus and Rebekah will stumble over Henrik's name.

When Klaus was a boy, he was forgettable. Just another Mikaelson. He did not have Rebekah's passion or Elijah's manners. Nor was he blessed with Finn's grace or Kol's wit. He was not anything like _Henrik_. There was nothing polite or elegant about Klaus and that made him invisible in the New World. 

His siblings tell stories of a giant but they are tainted by the memories of the monster who hunted them down one by one and twisted daggers in their backs. But Klaus knows better. He remembers being lost in the shuffle of siblings, remembers watching their joy and wondering why it was he could not feel the same. Always aware of that disconnect, but wanting more than anything to be loved as much as he loved them. Because when Klaus was ordinary, he was a scared little boy who clung to _love_ and _family_ like they were all that mattered. 

Time passes, the boy who was a shadow grows into a legend. And now...love and family are just illusions he's held onto, relics of some grander purpose - and everyone scoffs at the idea that Klaus could have ever wanted such things.

When Klaus was human, he was weak.

No one remembers this.

And that is the only blessing of being forgettable.

\---

Caroline is unforgettable.

But he thinks maybe if he tries hard enough...

Over the next day and a half he seduces a hand full of blondes with pretty smiles and bright eyes, slaughters twice as many. He still sees her when he closes his eyes. Still has her name burned into his throat.

He calls Stefan on the third day. He hangs up before either of them can say a word, but the damage has already been done.

\---

Experience as the world's oldest vampire has taught him a valuable lesson. Klaus didn't become the worry-inspiring creature he is today by fighting every challenge that crossed his path. Sometimes he let nature take its course, let predators fall on their swords - hubris, greed, lust. Maybe all of the above. With Mikael, he ran until he couldn't run anymore. This was survival at its best. Because even with all his natural ability and carefully honed skills, Klaus was sure that there was still a good enough chance that Mikael could best him.

With Silas, the same chance existed. He was an unknown entity. A mystery that was none to keen about making nice with anyone. So as soon as Klaus was sure there was no fun to be had with the fellow monster, he grabbed Rebekah (who was still moping over Stefan's latest betrayal) and fled town.

For a while, he hunted Tyler, but that grew boring. So he settled in New Orleans, bedded a werewolf, learned some new tricks from his new witch friends. Reunited with Elijah and together with Rebekah they killed a few usurpers. He made his presence known there. Established his own empire in only a few months time. In other words, he survived and thrived as only he knew how.

And sometimes ~~often~~ he thought of Caroline. Sometimes ~~always~~ he thought he took the wrong blonde with him.

\---

Silas took Caroline.

He _took_ her.

(It's not just about love and maybe that's what makes the difference. Klaus may love Caroline, but his soul mate has always been power. And when Silas _takes_ what Klaus has already claimed, well...)

In the end, it's the semantics that do him in.

\---

The irony, as always, was that Klaus was created in love at a time when love was between family members, not procreators. Klaus does not know his father's name or what he looked like. He does not know how he managed to seduce a mother of two with a well working moral compass. But what he does know is that his father loved his mother. The story goes that her name was on his lips as he passed. And Klaus knows the reason his mother could not bare to look at him had little to do with shame and everything to do with a broken heart though she may have felt the need to tell it differently.

Love was a weakness, a curse and a death sentence for his parents. And just like many diseases it is more than likely hereditary.

\---

"He'll kill you," Elijah says.

What Klaus hears - _Just walk away_ \- and Klaus has heard these sentiments before. In his head, it sounds sweet and soft - like Henrik's quiet murmur when he was half asleep and begging for another bedtime story (and isn't funny how centuries have not dulled that sound). It always loses, but usually its goal is virtue not self preservation. 

Klaus clenches his fist and puffs out his chest. "A thousand years, a thousand attempts and no one has yet to stop me, big brother."

Elijah frowns and Klaus sees the humanity marring his face. He claps his hand against Klaus's arm. "Pride cometh before the fall."

Pride, Klaus thinks, among other things.

\---

There had been others. 

Powerful, smart women who were easy on the eyes. Some bold, fueled by confidence and pride and others quiet and shy but filled with loyalty. There were women who loved him and whom he could have easily loved back. But he didn't. 

There was only one Caroline - and she is ten times more terrifying than some creature named Silas.

\---

"I believe you have something that belongs to me."

Caroline rolls her eyes. "For the record, I don't belong to anyone."

Klaus admires her commitment to a cause, even if that cause is avoiding attachment to him. He must be smiling because she blushes and looks away and that is something new. Something he will have to process and catalogue when this is over, but now, Silas's hand twists in her hair and pulls. Caroline lets out a yelp, and Klaus thinks he would like to break every single one of those fingers off and crush them until those bones turn to dust. 

\---

Falling in love with Caroline Forbes feels exactly the same as witnessing history being made. It is how he felt watching the Sistine Chapel come alive or catching one of the first performances at The Globe. But, instead of hearing the whispers and following the noise to something great, Klaus discovered Caroline all on his own. 

Caroline grows stronger every day. Hones a power that is hers and hers alone - something Klaus hasn't seen before and couldn't describe in any words from the plethora of languages he has learned. It is unique and blinding and no one else notices it. They are too concerned with the hypersensitive doppelganger or the subpar witch. Or God forbid Katherine and her one note sexual manipulation. 

Maybe Klaus is biased. Maybe that's what love does to people, but when he looks at Caroline all he sees is possibilities. It's a breath of fresh air in what has become a dull and predictable world.

Before he left for New Orleans, after Tyler was gone for good, Caroline reminded him again that she was too smart to be seduced. This time Klaus actually believed it.

\---

Caroline has blood on her wrists and on her cheeks. A little bit has even dribbled down her collarbone, disappearing underneath the neckline of what was once a beautiful dress. She looks dirty and disheveled, but she smiles as she finishes draining the woodland creature of her choosing, and it's a beautiful contradiction. 

"You know being yours has its benefits." She wipes at her mouth and the blood smears. "Not that I'm agreeing to being your possession, I'm just saying...it's nice to have the most dangerous creature in the world worried about your well being."

It's probably the nicest thing she's ever said to him and actually meant. He smiles, hides his hands in his pockets. "You, love, need all the help you can get. What with your homicidal-slash-suicidal friends and your blatant disregard for common sense when dealing with them."

Caroline stands, dusting over herself out of habit - as if blood and mud could just disappear with the brush of a hand.

"You're lecturing me about common sense? You just walked into some freaky immortal's den with only your ridiculous good looks and charm as a weapon."

"I got rid of him, didn't I?" Klaus says, trying hard to match the quick pace she has set. In the end, it had been easy. He dangled the location of _Katsia_ in front of Silas's face and watched the need for revenge trump any comfortable set up Silas could have had in Mystic Falls. "And you of all people, Caroline, should know that my charm is my greatest weapon."

"If by charm you mean arrogance. I'm pretty sure the reason Silas fled was because he was afraid he was going to get crushed by your giant ego."

"A simple thank you would suffice."

Caroline stops and stares at him, and he sees fear. Something she hasn't shown in his presence for a very long time. Klaus clings to the hope that their evolving relationship might see the reappearance of it, but then she shakes her head and laughs in disbelief. "Thank you Klaus for out psychopathing Silas."

He turns to keep moving and it says something that he is actually caught off guard when she reaches down and tugs at his hand to stop. If he looks confused, and he probably does, she doesn't say anything. Instead she creeps closer into his space, reaches up and presses her lips to his.

There is nothing spectacular about it and yet it makes the breath he doesn't need to take catch. A silly human reaction buried for centuries that suddenly shows itself and Klaus would like to crush it. Would like to wrap his hands around her silly neck and crush all of it, especially when she smiles at him as they part and all of that awfulness inside him washes away like nothing monumental has happened. Like loving this silly baby vampire as much as he does isn't humiliating and worthless.

He waits for the dagger or the spell. He waits for her little band of misfits to show up laughing in his face as he bleeds out or burst into flames. Because that's how this usually ends for creatures like him. One wrong step and they fall quick. 

Nothing comes. It's just the two of them - alone in a forest. Klaus isn't sure what happens next, but once again, she proves more terrifying than death. 

"Stop looking at me like I killed your puppy." Caroline says because her intuition is becoming her strongest asset.

"I don't keep pets," he bites back, and it's easy to fall back into this. Caroline tilts her head and laughs softly. "Your obsession with siring hybrids says otherwise." 

They bicker all the way back to the edge of the forest where their conversation lulls into a natural silence. Beyond the trees he can feel the anticipation rolling off of Elena and smell the desperation on the human whose name he never bothered to learn. Caroline extends a hand. "Until next time."

Every bone in his body is telling him to grab those wrists and pin her to the nearest tree - to take what he has wanted for too long, but instinct tells him not to press his luck and instinct has always been his greatest asset. He accepts the handshake, ignoring how ridiculous they must look. "Try not to do anything too reckless while I'm away, sweetheart."

Caroline still blushes at the terms of endearment, but she pulls him forward so that she can whisper in his ear. "But then what excuse would I have to bring you back." 

She presses a kiss against his cheek before she leans back smiling wickedly. He sighs, tries to play it off as dramatics when he says, "You will be the death of me, Caroline."

She just laughs - like she does not see the truth in it. 

Or maybe like she does.


End file.
